


Heavenly Bodies

by Grimmseye



Series: he's caught between the moon and the sun [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Established Molly/Essek, Gen, How do you lose a wizard you forget to cherish him, Kidnapping, M/M, Multi, Other, Pre-Relationship, Spoilers through Critical Role Episode 128: Cat and Mouse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-18
Packaged: 2021-03-25 23:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30096555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grimmseye/pseuds/Grimmseye
Summary: The image of a reunion was meant to be bright. How could you be anything but delighted when your loved one came back, returned to you when you believed them gone forever? The reality of it was this: quiet, and confused.Hehadwanted him back, dearly. Molly had been their heart, once upon a time, holding the strings to weave them together. When he died, it pulled them taught, stitched close through bloody punctures. It was the potential that had made Caleb’s heart ache, the unfairness of it all that Mollymauk could not see what they had become. Gods above, they were all a mess, but their fractured edges matched.----------The Sequel to "A Bird in the Hand".Mollymauk is reunited with the Mighty Nein — at the cost of Essek Thelyss. The return of their missing piece is exchanged with another, and the Nein now turn their course to rescue their abducted friend.
Relationships: Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast, Mollymauk Tealeaf/Essek Thelyss, Mollymauk Tealeaf/Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast, The Mighty Nein & Mollymauk Tealeaf
Series: he's caught between the moon and the sun [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980334
Comments: 8
Kudos: 65





	Heavenly Bodies

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my god this took so much longer than I expected, I'm so sorry. Between fandom drama and quarantine I've gotta say I have been drained these last few months. But I had to get started somewhere, so: here we go!
> 
> Welcome to the sequel to A Bird in the Hand, where we can finally go save Essek. To those of you returning from the last series, welcome back, and thank you for sticking with me!

He considered changing the pattern of the windows when he conjured the tower. The myriad of colors, deep maroon and purple framed in gold… it seemed a bit heavy-handed, now. What did you do with a memorial when the person it honored came back from the dead?

Mollymauk was quieter than Caleb ever remembered him being. Jester and Caduceus had produced some more suitable clothes, though they’d need to make a second trip to replenish his wardrobe. They’d dressed him in the vivid colors that made him Mollymauk in the first place, but the silent hunch of his posture, tail curled over his ankles — there was a dissonance in that image.

Yasha sat beside him, glued to his side as she had been for hours now. Jester was at his other flank, arms wrapped tight around one of Molly’s and leaning into him. Behind him was Veth, stringing beads through his horns to replace the jewelry he was missing.

The image of a reunion was meant to be bright. How could you be anything but delighted when your loved one came back, returned to you when you believed them gone forever? The reality of it was this: quiet, and confused. Beau had exited, followed by Fjord. Caleb wondered if he shouldn’t go, too. He and Mollymauk had never really been close, had they? Growled words hidden behind a smile, Molly equally as likely to give him a kiss as he was to shove him painfully against a wall. In hindsight, the tiefling had always left him off balance, uncertain at which angle he would bare his teeth.

And yet, he had wanted him back, dearly. Molly had been their heart, once upon a time, holding the strings to weave them together. When he died, it pulled them taught, stitched close through bloody punctures. It was the potential that made Caleb’s heart ache, the unfairness of it all that Mollymauk could not see what they had become. Gods above, they were all a mess, but their fractured edges matched.

It was a relief when Caduceus came knocking. That was a new focal point, Caleb’s gaze tearing from the clustered four to where Caduceus slouched through a doorway. “Dinner’s ready, if you’re hungry,” he announced. “And, if I may, Mister Tealeaf, I do think a good meal and a bath will do you well.”

Molly looked up. Caleb searched his expression, uncertain if he believed the smile that was plastered on his face. “Appreciate it,” he returned, using Yasha’s shoulder to push himself up. “I think that’s a wonderful idea. Say, Mister Caleb, I don’t suppose there’s a spa built somewhere in here?”

There were a dozen memories attached to that name. Mister Caleb, he’d purred and growled and laughed and spat in the few months they’d known each other.

“I, ah…” Caleb shook himself, refocusing. “I did take the liberty of attaching a well furnished bathroom to your room. I cannot alter any of it until I cast this spell again, but please do let me know if you would prefer something different.”

A lopsided smile fell across Molly’s face. “Will do.” He gave a loose salute and followed after Caduceus, leaning into Yasha’s side the whole way. A loop of beads swung from one horn as he went.

The next morning, Mollymauk told them everything.

Of all the stories Caleb had told himself before he found sleep that night, trying to explain this sudden resurrection, Essek had never once been involved. But that was Molly’s tale, and while he may have embellished, Caleb didn’t hear a lie. A trek across Xhorhas, he’d found their home, had been arrested and then taken into Essek’s care.

“So why didn’t he tell us,” Beau interjected, her fingers clutching around her knees. “We saw him, he could have — we were right there —”

“I asked him not to,” Molly said, a rueful smile on his face. “I wasn’t all right in the head. Never am, but I mean — I barely remembered you at all.” His gaze flicked between the group. Then he pointed a lazy finger towards Caduceus, “You don’t count. I think I’d be concerned if I remembered you.”

“That would be strange,” Caduceus agreed, amicable as ever.

So Molly had stayed with Essek, smuggled away and out of sight while they were none the wiser. The thought made Caleb’s guts twist. How easily Essek had lied to them, yet again. There was not a flinch in his expression as he harbored their dead friend and listened to them mourn.

And then there was something in Molly’s face whenever he said Essek’s name, a shift in expression that Caleb couldn’t quite read. That didn’t make him any happier. Nor did the rest of Molly’s tale.

For all the pain Essek had dealt him, Caleb still felt panic fluttering under his skin. The sting of betrayal couldn’t sharpen his edges — and now he felt breathless knowing that somewhere, Essek was in danger. He covered his mouth with one hand, breathing slow between his fingers.

“I can scry on him,” were the first words out of Jester’s mouth.

“The cuffs,” Caleb said, voice muffled against his palm. He lowered his hand to say, “The cuffs that Mollymauk was in. They blocked magic. It is doubtless that Essek would be in the same restraints.”

“Much tighter, actually,” Molly frowned. His tail coiled behind him, ears pinned low. “They only uncovered his mouth to let him eat.”

The first step to incapacitating a caster was to silence them. The second, bind their hands. He knew that, because he’d sat with a gag in his mouth and his hands clamped in place, magic buzzing under his skin but just out of reach, it was called a lesson, it was called discipline.

“Okay,” Beau breathed, combing her fingers through her hair. “So he was kidnapped in the middle of fuckall nowhere, by Dwendalian soldiers. Or mercs, whatever. But that — that says something, doesn’t it? How many people does he know here?”

“Vess DeRogna,” Caleb listed off, “Trent Ikithon. Ludinus Da’leth.”

“And Ludinus is the one he was conspiring with, right? Back during the peace talks.”

Caleb nodded once. “DeRogna and… Trent, as far as I am aware, were only in the background. It was Ludinus who worked with him most directly.”

There wasn’t a single good option among them. At worst, Trent had taken notice of Caleb’s interest somehow, abandoned their pact to use Essek as bait, a bargaining chip to take Bren home — but no, no, that was stupid. That was paranoid. Trent was not so blatant in his machinations.

But his mind had fixated on the image. A spare mage, one of no use to the empire. An experiment in the making, shards of gemstone pushed under Essek’s skin, ink branding runes upon his back, all he’d done with insignificant students so limited compared to a man who could bend gravity to his whims.

When a whistle didn’t catch his attention, Mollymauk waving a hand in his face. Caleb blinked, refocusing on the frowning tiefling. Molly cocked a brow, saying, “Back from the astral plane?” His face scrunched up for a moment, the frown deepening.

Caleb hadn’t expected Mollymauk to know anything of the astral plane — perhaps something picked up from his time in Essek’s abode. It was a realm of endless stars, free from the constraints of gravity and time, webbing throughout existence to connect all planes. He supposed he had been drifting, just then.

“Apologies,” Caleb said. “I have some… experience with their type. I am worried for our…” The word did not come freely to his tongue. Friend tasted too bitter. “Well, I am concerned for him.”

“So, shouldn’t we be doing something?” Molly’s tail whipped to and fro, impatience in the pin of his ears.

“We’re trying to figure out what to do,” Beau ground out. Her glared bored into the wall instead of Mollymauk himself, still unable to look directly at him. “We can’t just go running in a random direction. We need a plan.”

“Well,” Molly snapped, then floundered for words. “Think faster, alright!”

“Oh, yeah, wow, why didn’t I think of that!”

“Beau,” Yasha said, time as reprimanding as it could get. Then, softer, “Molly.”

Both of them slumped, glowering in opposite directions.

For a moment, a smile dared to tug at Caleb’s lips. Some things never changed. Not months of grief and love alike could make those two act civil with one another.

Caduceus rose from his spot, taking his staff in hand. “I think,” he announced, “it may be time to address a higher power.”

Jester perked up at once, no doubt intent on joining in. Caduceus gave her a tranquil smile before saying, “Any ideas, what to ask?”

He wandered out, Beau and Jester following. The others lingered, but Caleb waved them away. It would take a few minutes for those two to connect to their patrons, and Caleb had his own questions to ask.

To his relief, he did not have to stop Mollymauk. The tiefling seemed to have no intention of following the rest. Perhaps not realizing Caleb was still there, he heaved a sigh and tipped over backwards and onto the mattress with limbs akimbo.

“Ah… Mollymauk, Caleb found himself calling. “Are you alright? You were quite exhausted from your journey.”

Molly’s eyes snapped open again. When he found Caleb’s face, his smile was back on in an instant. “Oh I’m just peachy,” he grinned. “Bit sore in my everything, but I’ve had worse. Tried joining an acrobatics show once way back when. The person who was supposed to catch me missed. Cracked five bones for my trouble and let me tell you that is a bitch to handle. Lucky Yasha had her magic even back then, huh? Most folks can’t afford a cleric.”

Caleb wasn’t sure how much of the story was a bluff, but nodded all the same. “And yet we have two. We are quite lucky.”

“Ah, is that what he is?” Molly gave half a smirk, eyes panning to the door. “Where’d you find that one, anyway?”

“Mister Clay?” Caleb tipped his head. “Fairly soon after you… died. We did try to seek someone to… bring you back to us. Unfortunately he could not, but he ended up coming along with us instead. Calls it fate.”

Molly hummed, sounding unimpressed. Caleb lifted his eyebrows. “Aren’t you a soothsayer? Fate is in your portfolio.”

“Maybe so,” Molly shrugged, “but I don’t let it lead me by the nose.”

Caleb leaned forward. “Do you not like Caduceus?”

Molly’s ears flicked: up, down, then fixing perpendicular to his head. “I like him just fine,” Molly insisted, lips twisting. “I mean that.”

Caleb gave an acknowledging hum, uncertain. Mollymauk had seemed to get along with him. There was a level of subtle eccentricity to Caduceus that meshed well with Mollymauk’s own brand. He wasn’t certain what to make of this. But, then, he hadn’t been certain of much since Molly’s grave was found empty.

Abruptly remembering why he’d stayed behind, Caleb still hesitated to actually ask the question. It wasn’t important.

But when Mollymauk looked at him, expression quizzical before he asked “So what’s eating you,” he supposed he might as well take the opening.

“You and Essek were… friends?” He finally asked.

Molly gave a lopsided smirk. “That’s a word for it. We got along. I think he kept me around to make you folks happy, but I grew on him. It’s hard not to like this.” He motioned time himself with a wave and a cheeky grin.

“Ah. I see,” Caleb said, though he did not.

That hadn’t actually been an answer. Were they friends? Odd acquaintances, sharing a home. Or, by Mollymauk’s tone, had they been something else entirely? He couldn’t remember if Mollymauk had joked like that before, the memories of the tiefling they buried vibrant but fuzzy at the edges. So often Caleb remembered the smile, the flourish, the fascination that was Mollymauk, that even his own impeccable memories were tinted in rose.

“What about you all?” Molly countered, with a lazy tone. “He seemed a bit stressed about where he stood with you all these days.

Caleb frowned. “It is a complicated situation,” he said. After a pause, he added, wearily, “A lot has transpired since your… loss, Mollymauk. It would be a bit much to explain all at once, but… he has proven himself to be worthy of some skepticism. Even if I do —” he hesitated before completing the sentence, “— worry for him.”

He found himself looking away, and didn’t catch the frown that settled over Mollymauk’s lips.

They rejoined the others as Jester was completing her commune, Molly watching with curious eyes as that low green haze settled around her shoulders. Her lips moved, asking questions with silent answers, until the effect faded and her eyes refocused, her face grim.

“Okay,” she drawled, uncertain. “So, it’s not Icky-thong or Vess. It’s, uhm…”

“Ludinus?” Caleb filled in, dread settling in his stomach as she nodded.

Among the three of them, _Vess_ was the least of the evils. He could hardly be relieved it wasn’t Trent when the alternative was the man who despised the Dynasty, and those within it.

Beau caught his eye. “Sounds like they’re making good on that mutually assured destruction. Except Essek doesn’t exactly have anyone else on his side. The other two aren’t exactly gonna stick their necks out for him.”

Essek had woven a rope with them, and now they were hanging him with it. Caleb shut his eyes, steadying his breathing as he counted in his head. When he hit ten, he opened them again, tuning back into the hushed conversation in the room.

“So, what else do we need to know?” Caduceus mused. “Where he’s at, probably?”

“They won’t have him in any Empire prison,” Caleb noted, immediately. “There is a possibility that he would be kept in the, ah… ah…” His throat closed up for a moment, voice strained as he choked out, “sanatorium. B-but that is only if they were to use him for… certain purposes.”

Veth’s hand settling over his own nearly made him jump. Instead he squeezed her fingers, as Caduceus gave a sympathetic nod. “I can ask that,” Caduceus said. “If it’s a no, then what?”

His stomach twisted itself into knots as they discussed and bickered and then finally settled. Caduceus had been working on his own ritual as they spoke, and with incense burning an earthy musk into the air, he entered his trance.

Caleb drifted back against a wall as he spoke, sinking down to the floor and feeling wrung out. Eyes were on him — Beauregard’s, Veth’s, Mollymauk’s. He couldn’t bring himself to fret over them watching. Without prompting, Frumpkin bound towards him to settle in his lap, purring and kneading comfort with claws that couldn’t scratch.

Time felt dilated for the single minute that passed. Caduceus blinked back to himself, cleared his throat, and announced, “He’s, hm... he’s not in the sanatorium. That might be good news. But, uh… so. I asked if, uh, Trent knew about this, and apparently not. Ludinus might be acting alone here.” He looked bemused, though Caleb couldn’t bring himself to be surprised.

“Last thing,” Caduceus said. “He is in a more… private captivity, of Ludinus’ design. Don’t have any more details than that, I’m afraid.”

“We can start narrowing down location tomorrow, then,” Fjord noted. “Start with the continent and work down? Unless you know where this private holding of his would be, Caleb.”

Mute, Caleb only shook his head.

Tomorrow. They would have more answers tomorrow. And until then, he would close his eyes against the weight on his mind, breath deep and slow and pretend he didn’t feel the squirming fear that tried to crawl from his skin.

**Author's Note:**

> Annnnnd there we go! Apologies for a slow start. I'm getting used to Caleb's POV — I know I write him a little out of character, but it _is_ a choice at least. 
> 
> In any case, please let me know what you think! I'm a little worried I let this go for too long (꒪⌓꒪)


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